Hey guys,
The following line is another line that simply does not exist within many players game. The turn check/raise bluff.
The line allows us to fold less on the turn, but also on the flop. We can feel comfortable floating wider OOP on the flop knowing that we can use some of our turned draws as turn check/raises.
Before we get into detail let's take a look at the hand.
Hand converted with online PokerStrategy.com hand converter:
$0.02/$0.05 No-Limit Hold'em (6 handed)
Known players:
[tg]BU$6.76:///////;SB$5.00:///////;BB (Hero)$4.85:///////;MP2$9.53:///////;MP3$8.17:///////;CO$5.70:///////;[/tg]
Preflop: Hero is BB with J:h, Q:h.
3 folds, BU raises to $0.15, SB folds, Hero calls $0.10.
Flop: ($0.32) 9:h, 5:s, 3:c (2 players)
Hero checks, BU bets $0.20, Hero calls $0.20.
Turn: ($0.72) 8:d (2 players)
Hero checks, BU bets $0.44, Hero raises to $1.11, BU folds, Hero gets uncalled bet back.
Final Pot: $1.16.
Preflop
Preflop call looks pretty standard here imo. Way too strong to fold. I prefer calling to 3betting, we have some high-card potential etc.
Flop
First thing to realise is that if we are playing a decent strategy here, check/folding is out of the question. We have two overcards, a backdoor flush-draw, and also backdoor straight possibilities. Check/raising can be considered, but since the texture is somewhat dry it's usually better to defend our entire range by check/calling. So if we have a premium holding here such as 99 we'd also check/call perhaps with the intention of raising on a later street if the board becomes more co-ordinated.
Turn
Assuming we did slowplay the flop with our premium holdings we'd potentially now want to be raising this card for value. It puts a few draws out there and hence protection becomes more important. It would be incorrect strategy to purely raise premium holdings here, we should mix in some bluffs or semi-bluffs.
Q:h J:h is a nice candidate. It has some potential with the overs and gutshot, but not so much potential that we mind folding it if our opponent decides to jam over our check/raise. It's also a little bit weak to be check/calling, but too strong that check/folding would be a decent option. Assuming we were in position it's a lot easier to simply call vs the second barrel. Position confers a huge advantage. Firstly we'd have much better implied odds if we hit in position. Secondly it will be a lot easier to bluff effectively in-position because we'll get to see whether our opponent checks before we have to make a decision.
OOP can be problematic. Seeing as we don't quite get the implieds we need by purely check/calling, we have to think about incoporating a river donk-betting range if we want to make the turn check/call +EV overall. This can certainly be considered in some situations. There is a chance we'd think about donk-betting the river if we spike our T for value. This would really depend on how frequently we'd expect our opponent to check behind as opposed to bet on the river. This is one reason why check/calling OOP has lower implieds than IP. Without good reads we will not know whether it is optimal to donk-bet our rivered value hand or attempt to go for a check/raise. Assuming we donk-bet on draws we hit, it can also be reasonable to incorporate a donk-bet-bluff range on cards that we miss but connect with other draws in our range that we'd be donk-betting for value on.
However, none of this needs to be considered if we instead decide to check/raise the hand OOP on the turn. It's generally a good idea to construct our turn check/raising range with hands that fall into one of the following two categories
a) Hands which are an easy fold vs a Turn 3bet Jam
b) Hands that are an easy continue vs a Turn 3bet Jam
Check/raising mid-strength draws can sometimes get us into trouble. Often it will be tough to calculate whether we have a call or not. Even if it turns out we have a marginal fold we will be folding a ton of equity in the process and it would have made sense to play such a mid-strength-draw in a different way.
As for sizing, turn check/raises will typically be close to the sizing we'd use in a preflop situation where we decide to 4bet. Somewhere close to a min-raise but slightly larger, such as the sizing used in the above example. The exact sizing we use will be a function of the stack sizes; we are also interested in setting up a decent stack size for the river. Generally it makes sense to leave somewhere between about 50-100% of pot for the river situation. If we find our turn raise sets up less than a 40% pot-bet for the river it may be better to directly check/jam as opposed to going for the small check/raise trying to leave a bullet for the river.
